With the advent of mass-market wireless mobile devices and subscription wireless services, there are an increasing number of instances in which a mobile device user who has subscribed to a service provided by a service provider will stop using one device in favor of a new or otherwise different device, or stop his or her subscription with one service provider in favor of subscribing with another service provider. It is often the case that when a subscriber obtains a new device or moves from one service provider to another, the subscriber wishes to remain associated with the same phone number he or she has been using.